Bengaluru: In a heart wrenching incident, two children were orphaned in a matter of five months over property and loan disputes. Their father committed suicide in Punganur, a town in Chittoor district in Andhra Pradesh five months ago, while on Tuesday their mother was found dead in a lake in Kolar.
Six-year-old Sahil and eight-year-old Taj, son and daughter of Amjad Pasha and Salma Banu, are now at the mercy of their relatives.
Salma’s body was found floating at Jellanakere lake in a village in Mulubagal. It bore injury marks and was recovered by the police on Tuesday afternoon. The Mulubagal police have registered a case of unnatural death as some villagers had testified that she had reportedly told them that she would end her life, but they did not believe her and thought she was mentally unstable.
Even before her husband’s death, Salma was driven away from her in-law’s house along with her children. Her husband Amjad Pasha used to visit her in Kolar and promised to take the family back once the issues were resolved.
Later Salma was shocked to know about Amjad’s suicide. After returning from the mosque Amjad had and hung himself at his house in Punganur. The family members blamed Salma for his death, Salma’s father Noor Mohammad Ali told Deccan Chronicle.
Salma became depressed and started suffering from insomnia. She used to run away from home in the middle of the night taking knives and other weapons, her father added. We took her to ‘dargahs’ for treatment, he added.
On May 26, Salma came alone to Bengaluru to meet her brother Nawaz, who works as an auto-driver in Bhoopasandra, as she was unhappy going to dargahs. Nawaz took Salma to an NGO – Movement for Justice, who even arranged for her treatment in Nimhans.
But on May 28, Salma’s father came to the city and forcefully took Salma back to Kolar. Later on June 12, Salma went missing from her house and the family searched for her for two days. The body was found in Jellanakere lake on June 14, the police said.
